Things Mama Taught Me: Look After Each Other

I don't remember taking care of my younger brothers, but I do remember holding the baby sister. For years, my older brothers who can recall those "babysitting" days, have without mercy reminded me about my preference for reading over tending to the baby flopped over my knees. "Won't someone come get this miserable baby?" I pleaded. Miserable indeed! They won't let me forget!

Any family that has more than a couple or three children usually has to enlist the older ones to help watch the younger ones. What is true for our natural families is hugely important in the wider context of the "household of faith" and beyond that to the community at large. The Apostle Paul wrote "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." (Galatians 6:10) It is easy to give generously to "family," our own loved ones and those who share our faith. But what about the "all people"?

Shall I give something to the ragged, shivering man at the mall exit? Shall I agree to add something to my grocery bill for the food warehouse? Shall I stuff a bill through the slot of the bell-ringer's bucket? Shall I buy cookbooks that I don't need or greeting cards that are ugly or magazines I won't read because some young person wants to go to camp or has to help buy band instruments? I think Paul was not binding us to a requirement to give to every one who expresses a need (or a wish, for that matter). "Let us do good," he said, as an encouragement to be a generous, unwearied giver. And perhaps we need to be reminded that doing good consists of more than a few dollars here and there. John Wesley said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." There are many ways of doing good—even sometimes withholding the easy handout.

Good stewardship of the resources God has entrusted to each of us requires us to assess each situation, not in a protracted, rigid manner but with openness considering it before deciding yes or no. It need not be a long, painful process. Giving is meant to be a joyful thing! It's how we look after each other.

MaryMartha

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/